The Word Consuming Thing
Gods made magic and gave a man, to aid his hay-eaters, a word-consuming thing. “Plant corn,” he would say, add the feed-words “I love you,” and the thing would suck the sounds in, smile, and carry corn seeds to the field. If he said “I thirst,” plus the feed words, the thing would march right off to fetch water.
Directed properly, the thing cleaned house, chopped firewood, and cooked delicious meals. It was warm to sleep beside, and — given the feed words — offered joys of which the man had never dreamed. In a year’s time, it even made a miniature of him, attending to its many needs, while the man bragged to his friends.
Only the feed words troubled him. They gave no command, conveyed no data, yet produced results. At first, he had only to say them and the thing would drape itself on him and, even at midday, lead him to bed and open up its mysteries.
Much later, though the feed-words still got results, the thing would stare at him on hearing them, tugging the long hair that screened the twin hills on its chest. “I love you too,” it would sigh in its soft voice, then walk away to stare at a wildflower, sunset, bird, or other useless thing, and make vanishing jewels which it called “tears.”
— From Hot Popsicles, Charles Harper Webb [link - via]
Hi Mom,
No worries 'bout the 3 emails. Enjoyed your declaration of health.
The past few weeks have been very musical.
Highlights of the Oxegen festival were The Prodigy, and The Streets (UK hiphop). Green Day mainly played their slower, ballad-ish tunes. I enjoyed their faster, more rambunctious numbers. It was interesting how they played up to the anti-Americanism present in the Irish youth, denouncing Bush and whatnot to great cheers.
Camping with 10s of thousands of people was interesting - I think there were 70,000 during the day. The Irish kids were a friendly bunch, a bit too fond of the drink me thinks. ;) Were many pirates Irish, because the accent lends itself well to "argggg" and "matie"?
The Guinness tasted different, smoother.
The U2 concert was a powerful experience. When we arrived at the ArenA two long entry queues had already formed; we were 4 hours early. Our attempts to sneak into the line failed. ha! I'm surprised that we managed to get so close, considering our place in line. The Dutch crowd was very polite in the "pit," we stood near the front barricades and had room to jump, sway, and stretch.
Bono dedicated one song to Theo Van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn, and later called on the Dutch to lead the world in terms of Christian, Muslim and Jewish coexistence.
(Note that the Pim Fortuyn article on Wikipedia, like many others that mention Islam, is marked with a neutrality dispute.)
I'm off to AH for groceries.
Love,
K
From Language Is A Virus:
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Last Saturday we went to an Electro party at the 301 Overtoom squat (or ex-squat?).
"Squatting is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building that the squatter does not own, rent, or otherwise have permission to use. Squatters often claim rights over the spaces they have squatted by virtue of occupation, rather than ownership; in this sense, squatting is similar to (and potentially a necessary condition of) adverse possession, by which a possessor of real property without title may eventually gain legal title to the real property. [...]
Besides places to live squats are often socially interesting places, hosting give-away shops, pirate radio stations, (often vegetarian or vegan) restaurants."
There is a long history of squatting in The Netherlands, and throughout the rest of Europe. In Amsterdam their are squatted restaurants, bars, internet cafes, and of course apartments.
Despite political pressure and police evictions, there are a few remaining squats in Canada and the US.
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On Thursday we'll take a train to Eindhoven and then fly to Dublin for the Oxegen festival.
Some of the acts I'm excited to see (in no particular order):
